June 28, 2016

Eye on Extremism June 28, 2016 Counter Extremism Project DW: Nonprofit Group Rolls Out Online Tool To Combat IS Propaganda “A nonprofit group in the US says it has created a technology that can detect images generated by terrorists and remove them from social media platforms. DW spoke to Mark Wallace, CEO of the Counter Extremism Project.” New York Post: ISIS’s Thirst For Blood Only Matched By Its Hunger For Publicity “‘As shocking and horrific as ISIS’s carnival atmosphere executions of gay men continue to be, the public’s willingness to participate demonstrate that ISIS’s actions are built on a well-established foundation,’ reports the Counter-Extremism Project. ‘ISIS has cynically exploited these prejudices in order to ingratiate itself among the people it has conquered as well as to further its hateful agenda and impose its extreme and violent interpretations of Islamic law in the wider Middle East and beyond.’” The Wall Street Journal: ISIS And The Culture Of Narcissism “How do we process seeing the perpetrator of the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history preening in an NYPD T-shirt, or smiling up at the camera, shirtless? Which is the true image of Mateen, the image-obsessed gym rat or dead-eyed killer? The answer is both, and together they solve a puzzle that perplexes terror experts: Why is ISIS so successful at recruiting Westerners? The terror group has moved away from the old recruiting tactics of groups such as al Qaeda, which sought to connect with deeply observant Muslims. Instead, ISIS is looking for a new type of recruit, one who spends as much time in the multiplex as in the mosque.” Daily Caller: Despite Afghan Claims Of Victory, ISIS Surging “Islamic State fighters in Afghanistan killed dozens of Afghan soldiers and civilians Sunday, despite multiple claims from Kabul that the terrorist group was utterly defeated. A U.S. military report estimates between 1000 and 3000 fighters throughout Afghanistan who have fought the Taliban for the opium rich territory. The Taliban relies heavily on opium production to fund its terrorist operations and has clashed with ISIS for control of Nangarhar province. In some cases ISIS has been able to poach Taliban commanders both by paying high salaries and taking advantages of fractures in the Taliban movement. After the Taliban announced the death of their unifying leader, Mullah Omar, in July 2015 the terrorist group has been in a prolonged leadership crisis. The Taliban’s short-time divisive leader, Mullah Akhtar Mansour, was killed in a U.S. drone strike May 23.” Washington Free Beacon: ISIS ‘Kill Lists’ Increasingly Target U.S. Civilians “Pro-ISIS hacking groups have started including American civilians along with military, government, and law enforcement personnel on “kill lists,” consistent with the terror group’s effort to expand attacks to random targets and instill fear in the public, according to a new report. The SITE Intelligence Group, an organization that monitors jihadist propaganda, examined eight lists recently circulated online by pro-ISIS hacking groups, including some that name random civilian targets.” Associated Press: Bombings Claimed By Is Killed 43 In Southern Yemen “An Islamic State affiliate carried out a series of attacks in Yemen's southern port city of Mukalla on Monday, killing at least 43 people and wounding several others, officials said. The attacks came as the government and Shiite Houthi rebels planned to suspend talks on ending Yemen's larger conflict after failing to reach a breakthrough in two months of negotiations held in Kuwait. The officials said two suicide bombers and other militants carried out at least seven simultaneous attacks in Mukalla targeting intelligence offices, army barracks and checkpoints. In one of the attacks, a bomb was concealed in a box of food brought to soldiers at a checkpoint to break their dawn-to-dusk Ramadan fast. In another, a group of militants stormed a police station, officials said.” Newsweek: Israel Moves To Revoke Citizenship Of ISIS Operatives “Israel is attempting to strip two Arab-Israeli operatives of the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) of their citizenships and permanent residency through legal means in a bid to prevent them posing a security threat to the country’s citizens. Interior Minister Aryeh Deri filed a request with the Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit on Sunday to approve the move to remove the citizenship of 24-year-old Luqman Atun of the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Tsur Baher and the permanent residency of fellow East Jerusalemite, 26-year-old Khalil Adel Khalil. Luqman traveled to Turkey in October 2014 in hope of joining the group but he did not have the financial resources to reach the Syrian frontier that leads to the group’s self-proclaimed caliphate in the country, The Times of Israel reported.” BBC: Egyptair Crash: Flight Data Recorder Repaired – Investigators “The damaged flight data recorder from the EgyptAir plane that crashed last month has been successfully repaired in France, Egyptian investigators say. They say that work on the Airbus A320's cockpit voice recorder will begin ‘within hours’. It paves the way for experts to analyse data that could help explain what caused the crash. Flight MS804 from Paris to Cairo plunged into the Mediterranean Sea on 19 May, killing all 66 people on board. In a statement, Egypt's investigation commission said that the flight data recorder had been ‘successfully repaired... by the French accident investigation agency laboratory’. The voice and flight data recorders, known as black boxes, arrived in Paris from Cairo on Monday so that salt deposits could be removed.” Time: Iraq Liberates Fallujah From ISIS. Now The Hard Part Begins “When the Iraqi government declared victory on Sunday after routing Islamic State gunmen from the key city of Fallujah, it cleared a major hurdle on the way to a much larger and more complicated fight for the ISIS-held city of Mosul in northern Iraq. The victory in Fallujah deprives ISIS of an important territorial asset, a city 40 miles west of Baghdad from which jihadists directed a lethal campaign of car bombings in the capital. Now all eyes turn north, toward Mosul, the largest city still under ISIS control and the most significant strategic prize in the land campaign against the terror group. The recapture of Fallujah provides hints—some promising, some foreboding—about how the fight for Mosul might proceed.” Bloomberg: Boko Haram Fighters Prey On Niger After Fleeing Bases In Nigeria “Driven from its stronghold in northeastern Nigeria, the Islamist militant group Boko Haram is targeting the world’s least developed country: Niger. The Nigeria-based militants stepped up attacks in southeastern Niger this month, raiding villages for food and cattle and attacking the town of Bosso, near Lake Chad, to steal weapons. A looting spree in villages near the lake on June 21 was the latest in a string of raids that have left more than 40 people dead. ‘Boko Haram is on the defensive and trying to replenish their reserves,’ Vincent Foucher, a political analyst at the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, said by phone from Senegal. The organization is facing ‘a regional response that’s become much more coherent.’ Fishing and farming in the fertile Lake Chad region have almost ground to a halt, causing hunger among the 280,000 people who have sought refuge in the area.” Daily Beast: They Survived ISIS, Then Disappeared “The way Rasool Abdullah remembers it, he was in a hall with dozens of other men in an abandoned house outside Fallujah. He was thirsty, as he had barely any water to drink for the past two days. The heat from the summer sun made the cramped quarters unlivable. His hands were tied tightly with zip ties, and from the rooms off the hallway, where he says people were being tortured, all he could hear was screaming.” The National Interest: Get Ready To Fight ISIS's "Virtual Caliphate" “2016 continues to see young Muslims inspired by radicalism commit terrorist attacks across the globe. In Orlando, forty-nine were killed and fifty-three more injured at the hands of Omar Mateen, a single gunman who pledged allegiance to ISIS. In the Philippines, at least eighteen soldiers were killed and fifty-two injured in clashes with Abu Sayyaf militants. In Indonesia, eight were killed and twenty-four injured in several explosions directed by ISIS. The events, though unique in scale, felt eerily familiar for the United States and the rest of the world. They are a continuation of ISIS’s rhetoric falling on receptive ears, with social media often being the tool used in the recruitment process aimed at reaching even the lowest-end user, as seen by Orlando’s lone-wolf attack.” United States Sputnik: US-Led Coalition Carries Out 30 Airstrikes Against Deash In Syria, Iraq “The US-led coalition against the Daesh conducted 30 airstrikes against the terror group’s positions in Syria and Iraq on Sunday, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a press release. Additionally in Iraq, coalition military forces conducted 23 strikes coordinated with and in support of the Government of Iraq using rocket artillery and bomber, attack, fighter, and remotely piloted aircraft against Daesh targets. The coalition conducted all the seven airstrikes in Syria near the city of Manbij, where it destroyed two Daesh tunnels. In Iraq, 23 airstrikes hit Daesh positions near eight cities, including Baghdadi, Ramadi, and Mosul, destroying two Daesh tunnels, a bunker, multiple vehicles, four oil tankers, a boat, a fighting position, three excavators, as well as a mortar system, CENTCOM noted.” The Washington Post: Revamped U.S. Training Program, With New Goals, Has Trained Fewer Than 100 Syrians So Far “U.S. military officials are considering ways to ramp up training of Syrian fighters against the Islamic State as the Pentagon moves cautiously forward with a revamped program to create an effective local ground force. Several U.S. officials, speaking to reporters on the condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing military efforts, described the steps the Pentagon has taken since late last year, when the Obama administration abandoned an earlier Syria training plan. After repeated setbacks to that program, which aimed to create an army of Syrian fighters from scratch, officials settled on a different approach, one that would train only small numbers of leaders or other key personnel from local units who could act as a liaison with U.S. and allied forces attacking the Islamic State from the air.” Fox News: US Officials: 'Dirty' Mideast Intel Partly To Blame For CIA Weapons Landing In The Wrong Hands “Weapons supplied by the CIA for Syrian rebel training ‘routinely end up in the wrong hands,’ partly because of corruption among those rebels but also due to corrupt Jordanian intelligence teams, multiple U.S. officials close to the CIA program told Fox News on Monday. The officials said Jordanian intelligence services aim to use the Islamic State terror group to push back on growing Iranian influence in the region. ‘Every Middle Eastern intelligence service is dirty,’ one official told Fox News. While neither official reached by Fox News could confirm that U.S.-supplied arms have wound up on the black market, one said that a ‘majority’ of U.S.-supplied weapons was sold or gifted to other rebel groups fighting the Assad regime, including Islamist groups with questionable human rights records.” Reuters: U.S. Investigates Reports Hostages Killed In Afghanistan Air Strike “At least six prisoners of the Taliban as well as a Taliban commander died following a U.S. air strike in Afghanistan at the weekend, according to conflicting reports which U.S. officials said they were investigating. A Defense Department official in Washington confirmed an air strike was launched against the Taliban on Saturday. The official said on Monday reports that civilians had been killed in the attack were being investigated. Details of the incident, near the northern city of Kunduz on Saturday, remain unclear. It follows a decision by President Barack Obama to authorize greater use of U.S. combat power against the Taliban.” Syria Newsweek: ISIS Claims Responsibility For Suicide Bomb On Jordan's Border “The Islamic State militant group (ISIS) claimed responsibility Monday for the suicide bomb attack on a Jordanian military post last week that left seven members of the country’s security services dead. The device detonated outside a Syrian refugee camp in Rukban on the Syrian border in northeast Jordan, a predominantly desert area. The location is a few miles from where the borders of Jordan, Iraq and Syria converge. No group initially claimed responsibility for the attack but on Monday ISIS posted a video purporting to show the suicide blast in a Facebook post on its semi-official Amaq news agency, the same channel that claimed the Paris, Brussels and Orlando attacks.” Reuters: Plight Of Stranded Syrian Refugees Worsens As Jordan Blocks Aid - Aid Workers “Thousands of Syrian refugees stranded on Jordan's northeastern border with Syria are running out of food after a militant suicide attack prompted the army to shut the area, international relief workers and refugees said on Monday. Jordan, a staunch U.S. ally, declared the area a closed military zone after a suicide bomber, believed to be an Islamic State militant, drove a vehicle last Tuesday from the Syrian side and rammed it into a military base close to Rukban camp, killing seven border guards. Aid workers said convoys of food which normally go to the camp were being held up for a sixth day in Ruwaished, the closest town to Rukban camp, which is far from any inhabitable place. Only water trucks were being allowed through.” Iraq Daily Caller: Iraq Prepares To Free Mosul From ISIS After Fallujah Victory “Iraq is preparing to recapture Mosul after its Sunday victory over Islamic State in Fallujah. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi was ecstatic Sunday as he traveled to Fallujah to officially declare complete victory over ISIS. The seizure of Fallujah represents the second major city retaken by the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) since the taking of Ramadi in December. In response to the victory, al-Abadi encouraged the Iraqi people to celebrate. ‘I call on all Iraqis, wherever they are, to get out and celebrate,’ al-Abadi told state television with an Iraqi flag over his shoulders. Al-Abadi is not resting on his laurels though, as he also noted ‘we will raise the Iraqi flag in Mosul soon.’ Mosul is Iraq’s second largest city, and acts as the ISIS de facto capital in Iraq. ISF and its allies, backed by U.S. air strikes, have been preparing a siege of the city for months. U.S. forces have been actively training ISF for what they believe will be a very tough fight.” Turkey The New York Times: Seeking To Improve Ties With Russia, Turkey Apologizes For Downing Warplane “Turkey continued its diplomatic fence mending on Monday, apologizing for downing a Russian jet near its border with Syria last year. In a letter to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Monday, the same day Turkey announced a rapprochement with Israel, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed regret about the November episode, in which Turkish forces shot down a Russian warplane that Turkey said had violated its airspace. The downing infuriated Russia and paralyzed relations between the two countries: The Kremlin ordered sanctions on Turkish food imports, stopped visa-free travel for Turks and barred Turkish tour operators from offering Russian tourists vacation packages. Mr. Erdogan has become isolated diplomatically after adopting an increasingly authoritarian stand, a combative position with Europe regarding the international migrant crisis, and a newly muscular foreign policy, including a failed strategy in Syria. The outreach on Monday can be viewed as an effort to repair some of that damage.” Associated Press: Turkey: Pope's Genocide Remarks Won't Help Peace Efforts “Turkey says Pope Francis's recognition of the Ottoman-era killings of Armenians as genocide during his visit to Armenia won't help efforts to establish peace and stability in the Caucasus region. A Turkish Foreign Ministry statement said Monday that the pope had again ‘disappointed’ the Turkish people with remarks and accused him of ‘bias’ and ‘religion-based discrimination’ against Turkey. Francis has said the 1915 slaughter by Ottoman Turks of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians constituted planned ‘genocide’ during his three-day visit. Turkey rejects the term genocide, saying the death toll cited by historians is inflated and that people died on both sides of the conflict. When Francis first used it last year, Turkey recalled its ambassador for 10 months and accused the pope of spreading lies.” Egypt Associated Press: Egypt Detains, Deports Prominent Female TV Host “Egyptian authorities on Monday detained and deported a famous TV host whose program had been critical of the government's policies, including its crackdown on freedom of speech, her lawyer and officials said. Liliane Daoud was taken from her house to an undisclosed location, Zyad el-Elaimy said. Daoud hosted a talk show on ONTV, a private network that has adopted a less critical editorial line since Ahmed Abou Hashima, a pro-government businessman, purchased it last month. El-Elaimy said Daoud's arrest, by men who claimed to be from the Passport Department, came hours after the network ended her contract, and that authorities intend to deport her.” Middle East Times Of Israel: Hamas Won’t Negotiate Over Israelis Held In Gaza — Official “Hamas official said on Monday that the Islamist terror group will not negotiate the release of Israeli soldiers and civilians until the its preconditions are met, casting doubt on the efficacy of a promise by Ankara to work toward freeing them at Israel’s behest.  As part of the rapprochement deal announced on Monday between Israel and Turkey, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Ankara has promised to help return two soldiers whose bodies are believed to be held by Hamas, and two Israelis thought to be in the captivity of the terrorist group.” The Economist: Israel And Turkey Restore Relations “Israel and Turkey, two non-Arab regional powers in the Middle East, have long been considered natural allies; and for decades worked together to counter the influence of their shared enemies in Syria and Iran. The relationship began to deteriorate under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who as prime minister, pursued a policy of engaging with the Arab world, often at the expense of Turkey’s other allies. Ties were frayed in early 2009, following Israel’s armed incursion into Gaza, and were cut off in May 2010, when Israeli naval commandos intercepted a flotilla of boats that was attempting to sail to Gaza, resulting in the deaths of ten Turkish activists.” Reuters: Eight Suicide Bombers Target Lebanese Christian Village “Eight suicide bombers attacked a Lebanese Christian village on Monday, killing five people and wounding dozens more, in the latest violent spillover of the five-year-old Syrian war into Lebanon. Security sources said they believed Islamic State was responsible for the bombings in the village of Qaa on Lebanon's border with Syria, but there was no immediate claim of responsibility. Lebanese security services have been on heightened alert for militant attacks in recent weeks. Islamic State had urged its followers to launch attacks on ‘non-believers’ during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which began in early June.” Libya Sputnik: Daesh Terrorists In Libya Use Civilians As Human Shields – Military “The Daesh jihadist group militants in Libya's port city of Sirte are using civilians as human shields and their houses as bases, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Ghasri, spokesman for Libyan forces loyal to government in Tripoli, said. ‘They’ve made civilians into a human shield, keeping them from leaving the city and using their houses as bases,’ Ghasri was quoted as saying by The Times on Monday. According to the spokesman, thousands of civilians were trapped in the Sirte areas seized by the Daesh. ‘[Daesh militants] are also using residential roofs as sniper positions, preventing us from moving forward,’ Ghasri added.” Nigeria Reuters: Nigerian Army Says It Freed Over 5,000 People Held By Boko Haram “Nigeria's army on Sunday said it had freed more than 5,000 people held by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram during an operation over the weekend in the northeast of the country. Nigeria's army has over the last year, sometimes aided by troops from neighboring countries, recaptured most of the territory that was lost to the group, which has waged a seven-year insurgency aimed at creating an Islamic state in the remote northeast. The army said troops, supported by members of a grassroots security force, conducted raids in 15 villages on Sunday, during which they ‘killed six Boko Haram terrorists and wounded several others’.” United Kingdom BBC: Birmingham Man 'Kept Explosives At His Home' “A 28-year-old man has been charged with preparing for acts of terrorism. Zahid Hussain, of Naseby Road in Alum Rock, Birmingham, is accused of keeping explosives at his home, West Midlands Police said. Mr Hussain was arrested in June last year and has been detained under the Mental Health Act since then, the force added. He is due to appear at Birmingham Magistrates' Court on Tuesday.” Germany Deutsche Welle: German Lawsuit Accuses Turkey Of 'War Crimes' In Military Operations Against Kurds “A group of German lawmakers and rights activists on Monday filed a civil lawsuit against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for alleged ‘war crimes’ committed in ongoing military operations in the Kurdish populated southeast of the country. Lawyers Britta Eder and Petra Dervishaj filed the more than 200-page document with Federal prosecutors in Berlin as ‘an ethical obligation to bring charges here in Germany against Turkey for war crimes.’ The complaint also mentions former prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu and other top officials from the government, military and police. The accusations echo those of Turkey's Kurdish opposition and human rights groups, which have documented widespread abuses during months of counter-terror operations in southeast Turkey.” The New York Times: As Migrants Face Abuse, Fear That ‘Brexit’ Has Given License to Xenophobia “Less than a week after a referendum on British membership in the European Union, which galvanized fears about untrammeled immigration into the country, human rights advocates and leading politicians expressed alarm that the vote had given license to xenophobia, unleashing hatred among an economic underclass. Although the police in at least two major cities said they had not recorded an increase in hate crimes after the vote, there were concerns that anti-immigrant sentiment was now rippling through British society and infecting daily life. During the referendum, the ‘Leave’ campaign effectively stoked fears of an immigrant influx to garner support, and the baiting of refugees was further fanned by concerns about terrorism, the influential euroskeptic tabloid press and by the far-right, which attributed Britain’s economic problems to immigration.” France Associated Press: France Opens Manslaughter Inquiry Into EgyptAir Crash “French authorities opened a manslaughter inquiry Monday into the May crash of an EgyptAir plane that killed 66 people, saying there is no evidence so far to link it to terrorism. Prosecutor's office spokesman Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre said the inquiry was launched as an accident investigation, not a terrorism investigation. She said French authorities are ‘not at all’ favoring the theory that the plane was downed deliberately, though the status of the inquiry could eventually change if evidence emerges to that effect. Investigators decided to start the probe before waiting to analyze the plane's flight data and voice recorders, based on evidence gathered so far, she said, without elaborating. EgyptAir Flight 804, an Airbus A320 en route from Paris to Cairo, slammed into the Mediterranean on May 19. The reason for the crash remains unclear. The pilots made no distress call and no group has claimed to have brought down the aircraft.” Europe BBC: Snowden: Russian Data Collection Plans 'Dangerous' “US whistleblower Edward Snowden has criticised new anti-terrorism legislation approved by Russia's parliament. He wrote on Twitter that the ‘Big Brother law’ was an ‘unworkable, unjustifiable violation of rights that should never be signed’. Among the new rules are tough punishments for failing to report crime, or inciting terrorism online. It must still be signed into law by Russian president Vladimir Putin. Mr Snowden, a former contractor for the CIA, fled to Russia in 2013 after leaking details of extensive internet and phone surveillance by the US National Security Agency. Commenting on the law, he wrote: ‘Mass surveillance doesn't work. This bill will take money and liberty from every Russian without improving safety.’” Arabic Language Clips Financing of Terror Elwatan News: Turkey: $1.5 Billion Annually – The Terrorists' Revenues From Drugs The "Terror Funded by Drug-trafficking" report, issued by the Turkish Interior Ministry, indicates that proceeds of terrorist organizations from cannabis farming amount to 500 million Turkish Lira (about $170 million), while their profits from drug trafficking reach up to $1.5 billion a year. The report claims that terrorist organizations have turned to drug trafficking to increase their sources of funding. Now, the proceeds from production, transportation, distribution and sale of drugs have become the primary source of funding.  The report noted that terrorist attacks, wars and political instability have contributed to a favorable environment for the expansion of drug trafficking. Muslim Brotherhood Alarabiya: Complaint To Interpol Calling For The Arrest Of Fugitive Muslim Brotherhood (Leader) Youssef Nada fter insulting Egypt, describing it as "corral", an Egyptian lawyer named Tariq Mahmoud filed a complaint to the Office of the Attorney General in Alexandria and the Interpol. The complaint is directed against Muslim Brotherhood fugitive Youssef Nada, a member of the international organization and the group's former international relations coordinator. Attorney Mahmoud said that Nada had, during a recent TV interview, insulted the Egyptian people and the Egyptian state, describing it as a "corral." Lawyer Mahmoud claimed this insult undermines the reputation of Egypt and weakens its status among the international community. He thus called on the Interpol to arrest Nada quickly for his involvement in the financing of the Brotherhood and its terrorist operations which seek to destabilize Egypt. Mahmoud noted that Nada has already been convicted in absentia of several provisions, including inciting to violence and serving as one of the main financiers of the Muslim Brotherhood. Al Nusra Front Russia Today: 100 Anti-Aircraft Missiles (Delivered) To Al Nusra Front During The Truce! Roughly 100 anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles as well as an unspecified number of tanks have been obtained by Syria's Al Nusra Front group over the past three months, i.e. in the midst of the cessation of hostilities agreement, which went into effect on February 27th. This information, which was divulged by a diplomat who has been monitoring the hearings of the international working group overseeing the cessation of hostilities agreement in Syria, was later confirmed by Russian sources. The diplomatic source disclosed that Alexander Zorin, Russia's representative at the meeting, had provided the international community with clear information about how the terrorist organization had obtained modern tanks, anti-tank missiles and 100 anti-aircraft missiles. He claimed that the Front will not use these new weapons until it gets the signal from what he called "a big country on the northern border of Syria," an obvious reference to Turkey. Iranian Revolutionary Guard Radar: Why Do The Syrians Join The Iranian Revolutionary Guard? There are numerous reasons for young Syrians to join the ranks of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. Among them is that many of those young people are facing prolonged service in the Syrian regime's army. Another reason relates to enticements including a salary, food, vacations, and so on. For instance, Abu Ahmed, had served in the ranks of the Syrian regime's forces since 2010. He was not discharged despite completing his service, which included deployment in Sayyidah Zaynab district, then in Jdeidet Artouz and Daria in the rural areas of Damascus. In 2013, he went AWOL and hid in the Masyaf mountains of central Syria for a year, until an amnesty decree was issued in 2014. Abu Ahmed decided at the time to join the Revolutionary Guard, which gave him an unqualified exemption from serving in the ranks of the regime's army and a salary of 45,000 Syrian pounds ($205) per month. Houthi Gulf Eyes: Houthi Militias Loot 25 Billion Riyals Per Month From The Coffers Of The Central Bank Of Yemen A recent Yemeni government report exposed the Houthi militias' crimes of looting public coffers. It claimed that the Houthis continue taking 25 billion riyals ($100 million) per month from the Central Bank in Sana'a under the guise of "supporting the war effort." A report presented by the Yemeni Minister of Finance Munser Al-Quaiti and Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Dr. Mohammed Al-Maitami, in the middle of the current month in Riyadh, pointed to the Central Bank's failure to supply its branches in the various provinces of the republic with the necessary liquidity.